alapa
Meaning
- feminineslap, smack (with the flat of the hand)
Choosing the right word Döderlein's Latin Synonyms
Alapa · Colaphus
Alapa (Goth. lofa, ‘the flat hand,’) denotes a blow with the flat hand on the face, as a gentle punishment, like a slap on the cheek, or box on the ear; colaphus (κόλαφος), a blow on the head with the clenched fist, betokening anger and rage, like a cuff, a thump. (vi. 14.)
Declension
| form | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | alapa | alapae |
| genitive | alapae | alapārum |
| dative | alapae | alapīs |
| accusative | alapam | alapās |
| ablative | alapā | alapīs |
| vocative | alapa | alapae |
ducere gravem alapam alicui, to give, Phaedr. 5, 3: ministri eum alipis caedebant, Vulg. Marc. 14, 65; ib. Joan. 18, 22; 19, 3; esp. among actors, for the purpose of exciting a laugh among their auditors, * Juv. 8, 192; * Mart. 5, 61, 11.—When a slave was emancipated, his master gave him an alapa; hence, poet.: multo majoris alapae mecum veneunt, i. e. with me freedom is much more dearly purchased, Phaedr. 2, 5, 25.Charlton Lewis's shorter dictionary for students: the same scholarship in plain, modern definitions.
Origins
Of unknown origin. Originally used by Romans to refer to the strike given from master to slave upon manumission as a final act of indignity. First attested in Phaedrus when the Empire was already greatly expanded, then in the Semitic loanword-ridden Juvenal and largely attested in the Christian writings, i. e. from the proponents of a Semitic religion. Hence, probably from Aramaic אַלַּף (allap̄, “to teach”), and/or from Proto-Semitic *ʔallipa (“to tame, to domesticate; to familiarize, to instruct, to put together, to join”), related via the idea of an ox trained to Proto-Semitic *ʔalp- (“ox, ox in a yoke”).
- Catalanàlep
- Frenchaube
- Italianlapazza
- Portugueseaba
- Romanianaripă
- Spanishálabe
- Aromanianarpã
- Aromanianaripã
- Galicianaba
- Galicianlabazada